By way of example, the starter battery of a motor vehicle is an accumulator, which delivers the electrical current for the starter of an internal combustion engine. The battery of an electric vehicle used to drive the vehicle is by contrast referred to as a traction battery. Electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles may also have a starter battery in addition. By way of example, lead accumulators or lithium-ion accumulators can be used as batteries, however these will also be referred to hereinafter as lead batteries or lithium-ion batteries.
In order to determine a battery issue, the battery temperature can be monitored, for example, since it is an indicator for the state of the battery. This is performed typically using a conventional pole niche sensor, which serves as a battery monitoring sensor (BMS). If the temperature measured using this sensor for example reaches a certain limit value, a critical state of the battery is assumed.
When determining the wear of a battery, however, the battery temperature may also be used in other ways. By way of example EP 1 387 177 A2 discloses a method for determining the wear of an electrochemical energy store, in which a wear variable is determined over time depending on the battery temperature. Here, the wear variable is determined as the sum over time of temperature-dependent wear rates, the values of the wear rates rising over proportionally with rising battery temperature. The over proportional influence of rising battery temperatures on the wear of the battery is therefore to be taken into consideration.
Vehicle systems in the low low-voltage range (14 . . . 48V) are usually separate from electric drive systems, as found in electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles. In such low-voltage systems, however, battery monitoring is not usual.